Cosmic Castaways
by thaxmax
Summary: When the Normandy gets blasted into the Fallout universe Shepard and its crew must survive in the post-apocalyptic hell that is now there earth. With the help of a girl he doesn't know anything about he will travel great dissents to make sure their home in time to save the galaxy, but war… war never changes. And the Wastes will try to stop them. No matter the cost.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: anomalies of change

The _Normandy _shot through the alpha relay, its pilot flight lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau's hands were flying across the holographic display trying to stay ahead of the mass of element zero that was bearing down upon them.

"EDI divert power form none critical systems to the drive core!" Joker shouted just as commander Tomes Shepard came running up behind the pilot.

"Of chores Jeff" the synthesized voice of the ships AI said, increasing their speed by almost a mere fracture. All of a sudden they felt the first shockwave sent by the destroyed relay; the rocking of the ship was enough to send Shepard nearly flying down the walk way that was not only used to get to the cockpit but held many of the _Normandy's_ navigators, fortunately the commander held on to the back of the pilot seat.

"C'mon baby hold together, hold together" Joker whispered under his breath, just as another shockwave rocked the ship. "Mass energy spike in engineering!" EDI reported. "Sending power surge to none critical syst-". The AI abruptly cute out as the ship was hit wave after wave as dark energy blasted against the _Normandy's _haul. "Joker!" the voice of someone with what sounded to the humans, a moderate Russian accent came over the ships comes. "What is it Tali! Because I'm kinda busy right now!" Joker shouted, even though he liked the Quarian now was not the time for them to have a conversation. "The drive core looks as though it's going to explode so get us the _keelah _out of here you _bosh 'Tet!_" Tali shouted as the com went dead. Joker spared a quick glance at the ships speed and saw that they were going faster than the ship could take, fortunately for the _Normandy_ and her crew the sol relay was coming up. "Sol relay approaching ETA thirty seconds!" Joker shouted to Shepard, who had taken the seat to the left of him. "The faster we get out of this the better!" Shepard shouted back, "ETA twenty sec-"Joker was cut off as the ship came clear of the blast sooner than expected, entering the sol system. He let out sigh of relief as the ship slowed and heard Shepard do the same.

"Commander I think you should go check on the crew and go for a bit of rest, I'll file the report to admiral Hackett". His commander nodded the near death experience and having committed mass genocide a few hours earlier leaving him exhausted. '_Heh for a man with brittle bones he sure can be smart, sometimes anyways.'_ He left the pilot to do his job and walked to the elevator through the combat information center or the CIC for short; stepping in to the lift he pressed the deck one elevator key which was the captain's cabin '_a few hours rest should do me good' _as the elevator came to a stop, opening the doors to the cabin he removed his armor and flopped on the bed passing out almost instantly.

Alliance command

"Put me in contact with the _Normandy"_ admiral Hackett asked an alliance operator, the man saluted before doing what he had asked. A few minutes passed and all that came up was static.

'_Must be repairing there systems'_ he thought turning to leave the com room. "Put me in contact as soon as you get a signal" he said, the man saluted again and went back to what he was doing earlier.

Planet earth capital wasteland

Dust crouched, low eyes focused upon the man in front of her baring her machete that her brother sent her from the Mojave wasteland, she continued to silently move toward him not even a trace of alarm on his face once she was more than a foot away from him, she rushed him the blade kept at her side by the time he had turned around to see what was going on she had already the blade stuffed deep between his ribs. The man let out a gasp as pain laced up his side, Dust smiled at the sound as she twisted the blade drawing more blood as making it spout from his mouth, she wiped some from his side and licked her gloved hand enjoying the taste of crimson on her taste buds she looked to the man's eyes that had a begging look inside them, a look that asked for mercy when she had none to spare. She smiled sadistically and sank her teeth in to his neck, the man tried to scream but between the machete in his lungs and her teeth in his neck there was little he could do except accept his fate he took one more look at the sky and closed his eyes. Dust ripped the flesh from his neck nibbling on some of it and swallowed the last bit of blood in her mouth she looked down at the now limp body in front of her, and set to work before it started to rot. Removing his cloths she took out her kitchen knife and sliced open his chest to his pelvis and began the long process of removing his organs, first was the lungs and then the heart and so on. After removing the stomach and kidneys her hand delved deep back in to his still warm corps and ripped out his liver, which once was out its prison she ate almost instantly. After her little snack she called her bramin over to her and retrieved a body bag as well as some salt, to keep the meat fresh.

"That's our dinner Jane" she said to her bramin as she gave her a few fingers, smiling as the two headed cow ate them. "Let's head back home girl" she said as she patted the two heads as they finished eating from the palm of her hand, she packed up the body and placed it on the back of Jane and gave a few clicks as the signal to move, slowly but surely they made it back to a small shack In the middle of nowhere. Leading Jane to her pen Dust relived her of the body on her back and entered the shack, well not the biggest house she had lived in it was sizable with two rooms both on either side, one was a small kitchen while the other was a bed room and a spare guest bed room that she never used. In the kitchen there was an access door down to the cellar that she did use to put her "special guests" that did decide to stay for dinner. Hauling that body over to the cellar door she placed the body down quickly opened the door and dragged her food down the stairs, turning the lights on she grabbed a meat hook, usually used by raiders but in her case it was used to keep her food off the floor, and sliced the sharp hook through his shoulder. Once he was strung up she began the process of dressing her latest guest for dinner.

_Normandy _captain's cabin

_Faces swam around his vision, all begging for him to either save them or spare them, woman, children, all of them his surroundings was that of a forest the ashes of the lost souls and their silhouettes all danced and whispered in his ears to save them. One of them began to approach him its features coming into focus and he realized who it was. _

_Ashley Willems. _

Commander Tomes Shepard bolted up right in his bed, sheets clinging to his skin from the sweat that covered his body, he looked over to his clock and saw that he had slept for a full seven hours.

'_The crew must have thought I could use the rest… not that I'm complying'_ he thought somberly getting up and out of bed in the process putting on his simple Cerberus uniform a look of distaste passing over his face in a flash. He began to approach the door when it suddenly opened to revile Miranda Lawson, a Cerberus operative through and through, she held a supreme authority complex which made people hate her for plenty of reasons, but if it wasn't for her "perfect" body than she would have been shot a long time ago.

"What can I do for you miss Lawson" '_pain in the ass bitch' _he thought after he asked the question.

"Where to start" she replied, her Australian accent coming in modoritly, Shepard took a quick look at her eyes and saw that this was going to be a very long, one sided conversation.

"Well start with what's wrong and then go from there, ok?" _'Not that I care about your problems anyway'_.

"Well were almost out of fuel, most of our systems are back on line but if we don't land it won't matter anyway, we do have EDI back on line but the rest will need to be repaired." She finished

"Well were in the sol system so let's stopping at earth and get the repairs we need" before she could complain Shepard asked EDI to set achroes for earth.

"That will be all Miss Lawson" Shepard dismissed her

"Understood commander", her reply came in quick; Shepard waited for her to leave and take the elevator down to the crew deck before he started walking for the door again, ever since she tried to force herself on him he remained wary of any tricks she might have used to seduce him. Entering the elevator he took it down to the CIC to talk to Joker. The ride down was one spent pondering his nightmare, he thought every day of the lives of people he could and would have saved if only there had been more time, he regretted every minute and life lost; and now he had the lives of every soul that had been on that colony when the alpha relay destroyed it. The elevator made a 'ding' noise bringing him out of his thoughts, the doors opening with a metallic 'whoosh' he stepped out of the lift on to the CIC deck.

"Hello commander" yeoman Kelly chambers politely greeted

"Hello Kelly, any word from admiral Hackett?" he asked the red haired girl, who served as the _Normandy's_ yeoman and councillor.

"No word yet commander, though I will tell you when you do receive a message as I always do" she said with a smile. _'I'm sure you will'_ he thought to himself even though he liked Kelly she could be annoying 

"Thank you Kelly" he replied politely making his way around the holographic display, making his way up the walk way he could see one of his old friends chatting with EDI.

"Glad to have her back all ready?" Shepard teased the pilot, at first when Joker had met the ships AI he was always making comments about how he wanted it gone, now he was talking to her like she was his best friend.

Joker spun around in his seat to reply but EDI beat him to it. "Mister Moreau is just happy to have someone to talk to up here in the cockpit" she answered

Shepard smiled and shook his head "anyway I wanted to talk to you" Joker's face visibly paled, Shepard knew something was wrong when he did that his eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what was wrong ultimately failing.

"What's wrong?" Shepard asked through he knew It probably wasn't going to be good.

"I… had EDI do a scan of earth when we noticed something wrong" he spun around in his chair and pulled up an image of earth "this is the earth we all know and love right?" Joker joked.

"Yeah of chores home sweet home" Shepard said having grown up on a space curser most of his life this was only the second time he ever saw it.

"Well… this is what the scan pulled up" Joker pulled up anther image of earth and what he saw he couldn't even begin to believe they were the same plant theirs was a utopia while this… thing looked like Tuchanka all wasteland. Shepard didn't even want to step foot on the plant but they needed to refuel, repair systems, and now find out what happened to the human race's home plant.

Swallowing hard commander Tomes Shepard gave the order.

"Set her down Joker".

Planet earth capital wasteland

Dust sliced through the man's clave, separating the leg from its owner. She always liked eating the legs first it was a common thing she and her brother shared, growing up in a vault they had never had to worry about food but once they had been thrown out of their home things got desperate, food was scarce and hunting was a pain. But if there was one thing the wasteland had it was raiders and slavers, plenty of food there if you weren't picky about eating human flesh. Taking the severed limb from the chopping block she exited the cellar and re-entered the kitchen, she placed the leg on the counter and began cutting the many species that her brother had sent. Some jalapeño peppers and Nevada fruit, chopping all of it up she sprinkled all of it over the leg and placed it in a _working_ stove. Setting her personal information processor's timer she began the hour long wait for her diner to finish cooking. Pondering past hunts and her time spent in the vault.

_Vault 101 _

"_Come on give it back" Eve playfully squalled at her brother Adam, she always thought it weird that their father James named them after the first man and woman created by god. Not that she cared at the time anyway. _

"_Or you'll what?" her brother teased back holding the_ Nuka Cola_ truck that she loved to play with. The truck itself was a gift from her best friend_ _Amata had given her. _

"_I'll tell dad!" Eve said in her most serious tone she could muster, but deep down she loved her brother's antics; even if they did drive her crazy. _

"_Tell dad what?" there father said as he walked in to their shared bed room since there were baby's, there father was a man in his mid-twenties only showing slight signs of graying. _

"_Tell dad that Adam is being mean!" Eve said as she ran over to her there father, who got on one keen to embrace his daughter. _

"_Adam please give Eve the truck" there father said with a calm voice, Adam simply nodded and handed her the truck. _

"_I'm going to see Amata want to come with?" he asked just a simple question, and saw his sisters eyes brighten. _

"_Sure!" she squalled again as her father let her go to chase after her brother who was already exiting the room. _

"_Just don't be too late!" they heard there father yell out from behind them. _

Dust heard an annoying ticking sound on the outside of her shack which brought her out her memory; she walked to the door of the shack and walked outside to see what the problem was. Before she could round the corner there was a bright flash of light and heat could be felt on her skin. There was a ringing in her ears and she realized that it was an explosion her senses came back rather quick mainly due to the fact of her serves with the brotherhood of steal dealing with that lot had made her sharp as the tools she uses to hunt.

Coming out of her daze she looked to find that her shack had been completely destroyed a blaze set before her and she could hear the faint sound of a vertibird taking off well the ringing in her ears was still evident her eyes had already adjusted. And locked upon the couplet of the detection of her home an enclave vertibird could be seen through the fire and smock flying already out of range of her missile launcher.

"Dam it!" she growled to herself before she realized something.

"Jane!" she shouted out to herself, as she ran over to the other side of the burning shack. Only to find her brahmin's pen completely obliterated in the blast.

Anger swelled deep inside her, well Jane may have just been an animal it was one of the beings in this world that didn't judge her or think any less of her for what she was.

A cannibal.

'_I'll get those fuckers I swear it'_ she silently promised her now gone friend.

End of chapter one. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: unknown visitors

_Normandy's cockpit_

The _Normandy_ moved across the ruined landscape of man kinds home world, from what the scanners could pick up there was life, but they didn't know what kind of life; the scanners also told them that their location was in the Washington D.C area.

Farther out of the D.C area it was just wasteland as far as the eye could see, a few old looking radio stations doted the land scape, as well as some factories that the human crew only saw in pictures from the twenty first century.

"We've got a signal coming in sir; want me to put it through?" Joker asked Shepard who simply nodded, deep down he hopped it was an alliance operator that he could get some information from.

That thought was crushed instantly as soon as it came through.

"_Hey everybody, this is Three Dog, your friendly neighborhood disc jockey what's a disc? Hell if I know but I just going to keep talking anyway!"_ they stood there mouths hanging open and expressions of shock as the message continued.

"_Today we got some really fun news, Regulators are still hunting that cannibalistic crazy bitch that ate an entire squad of merc's, and get this we got sightings of an unidentified object flying over D.C! That's right mommies and daddies grab your shot-guns and hide your children we got aliens visiting today!" _Joker cut the transmission off and looked to Shepard who had the same look of shock as he did.

"Did… he say cannibal?" Shepard asked the disbelief evident in his voice.

"I… think he did… sir" Joker answered still just as dumfounded as his commander.

"What could drive someone to do such a thing…?" Shepard trailed off trying to warp his mind around that of someone eating someone else's flesh and drinking there blood; raw or cooked it was still an image that sent shivers up and down his spine.

"I don't know, commander" Joker answered the shock of hearing this also having the same effect on him.

"Commander I am detecting a major heat source thirty minutes west, I am also detecting two life sings coming from it" EDI informed.

"Thank you… EDI… Joker pleas take us in to investigate" Shepard ordered the pilot, who simply nodded. He turned to leave and tell the crew to suit up and meet him in the cargo hold, all the while a really

bad feeling settled into his gut _'Somehow I just know this isn't going to end well…" _he thought to himself, anther chill running up his spine.

Capital wasteland

Dust circled the yao guai, eyes completely focused on the beast that had tried to sneak up on her. Not that it did it any good she had heard it long before it had made its move, and now it was a waiting game to see who would make the first. Its heavy breathing told her how old it was, not that she cared; it tried to kill her in front of her now gone home. Her sanctuary agents not only the wastes but also the Regulators that hunted her furiously, all because she had murdered a few _innocent_ people; the beast lunged at her. Side stepping it quickly, she brought her machete to slice through its tough skin on its side penetrating it deeply it seemed; as it let out a long howl of pain before trying to moll her with its left claw. She quickly ripped out her blade and blood began to spew from its side, she made eye contact with the yao guai and saw that beast looked tired from wandering the wastes for food and such. Even if it did manage to kill her the wound she had inflected would surely lead to blood loss and total death. The yao guai made one more charge, planning on tackling her; as it drew near she leapt at the last second on to its back and brought the blade down on its spine. Severing all the nerve endings in its body, hopping off its now limp body she walked around to the side she had cute open; removing her kitchen knife, from her duster that held an assort mint of knives blades and other sharp objects that she liked to keep around. Keeling down beside her kill she plunged the knife into its side, much like every other kill it was the same process that she did with her human quarry.

It took her almost half an hour for her to remove the three stomachs, two livers and pelt all together.

'_Not as good as the _other _meat I like'_ she thought somberly, fished carving her meat; well she didn't harbor any resentment to any type of food she did prefer meat of a human quality than anything else. After she had finished her task of trying to figure out what her next move would be.

She could go back to the citadel get help from the B.o.S, but that was unlikely to happen as they had a shoot on sight order from Lions to kill her after she and her brother killed some of their men when they first turned to cannibalism a year ago.

The Enclave was just as unlikely to after they had just tried to kill her, mostly for blowing up most of their basses.

Raiders were just likely to use her than kill her; same went with slavers, except they would just sell her after they had there _"fun"_.

All in all she had no were to go, so she walked over to a rock plonked down and turned on her P.I.P. BOY's radio to G.N.R.

The song _world on fire _was just ending when she got a signal; the news report came down as usual.

'_blah, blah, blah I'm three dumb shit dog, blah, blah, blah l I like to blow all the knights hear at the station, blah, blah, blah aliens are visiting. _

'_Wait what?'_

"_-dren we got aliens visiting today!" _that last statement seemed to linger in her mind, she could remember being abducted and experimented on, it sure left its mark on her that was for sure.

'_thought I blew that thing up, or at least left it in good hands." _A tick started in her jaw; once she got back to the _zeta_ she was going to have along_ chat _with Mister Elliot.

But then there was the possibility that it was _something else_ visiting there shit hole of a planet. She didn't have long to wait as she saw what Three Dog had been talking about.

The ship that she had been on was circular, this one appeared to be more triangular and had what she thought was engines at the back. There seemed to be a blue haze that surrounded the ship itself, probably some kind of tec that she didn't know about. A large hatch opened up in the back and another vehicle dropped down on to the waste land floor. This one had three motor like objects that looked like something from a vertibird, the objects seemed to propel it through the air, and keep it from dragging itself across the ground.

It landed after sometime of hovering, she brought out her trusted machete hid up on the side of what looked to be an access panel. With a metallic hiss the panel opened, she heard heavy footsteps like power armor on the metal floor. The footsteps grow louder and louder as they got closer and closer. Once she deemed it a good time she rounded the corner in a flash.

And came face to face with a human!?

M44 Hammerhead.

Commander Tomes Shepard was surprised by the sudden appearance of the woman in front of him, he caught a glimpse of her face and saw that she was just as surprised as he was but she reacted quicker than he did.

Brandishing a crude looking machete all the while; before she could slit his throat, he quickly stepped back and grabbed her wrist unexpecting the kitchen knife to come up in the pit of his N7 armor. Letting out a series of curses he kicked her away from him, and clutched a hand to his side. While the wound wasn't deep it still did sting; he heard Grunt let out a few shot-gun blasts having giving orders to not kill any one until they figured out what the hell was going on.

He looked up to the woman after applying some medi gel and saw she had drawn a crude looking blaster pistol drawn on him, it had a green energy. While he didn't like having a gun on him he could tell that she was studying him and his group. A look of confusion was on written on her face when she looked at him and even more when she looked to Garrus and Grunt.

'_Hasn't she ever seen a Turian? Or a Krogan?' _he silently asked to himself, her appearance was rather strange to him. She had what looked like an old duster from the old cow boy movies he used to watch as a kid. Her skin was mainly tanned due to the harsh sun light beating down on them. She had an odd looking device on her left are. It had a screen on it, nobs and buttons and the like. Her hair was a greasy dark blackish brown. And from what he could tell, her eyes were a honey gold. The cooler they used to describe Eves eyes from the bible.

"Who are you, and what's with the mutants?" he heard her shout at him, her stance side she wouldn't take a lie for an answer; and he didn't know what to tell her.

"Well first let me introduce myself" he side, trying not to wince at the stinging in his arm pit. He made eye contact just to make sure that he didn't mean any harm to her, even though she had stabbed him.

"I'm Commander Tomes Shepard of the alliance military, and this is Garrus and Grunt; we are currently trying to figure out what happened to earth" a scowl appeared on her face.

"The hell is wrong with you? Just because you show up in a fancy space ship doesn't mean you shouldn't know what happened" she side, annoyance written on her face.

"Well maybe you could enlighten me miss…?" he asked, he could tell that she was thinking it over.

After a minuet she side "the name is Dust, and just so you know there was a nuclear holocaust to hundred years ago" she stated it, like it was common knowledge. He didn't let it show but her words had hit him harder than he was letting on.

"What… what year is it?" he stammered out trying to still keep his emotions in check.

"Why?" she asked like he should know. "Did you just come out of a vault and the Enclave put you with a bunch of mutants?" Enclave?

"What's the Enclave?" he asked her scowl depend when she heard the question.

"The Enclave is the _"American"_ government that tries to bring order to this waste land we call home, I would stay away from them if you don't want to get turned into a lab rat." She side, the hatred evident in her voice.

"Sounds like Cerberus" he muttered to Garrus, who simply nodded.

At this point Grunt was getting antsy without killing since getting off the hammer head, not wanting to keep the blood thirsty he asked Dust "are you going to try to attack us?" the question was out there now and he waited for an answer.

After a while she simply side "no" and turned to leave but before she could go even a step he called after her.

"Wait!" he shouted after her, hopping that shed at least help them understand there situation.

"look" she side sternly spinning around to face him pistol kept at her side. "I don't want to kill you but right now you're making it very hard, so if you would be so kind as to leave. Me. Alone!" after she had side that she began to walk off in to the distance.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a splotch of red. Turning to face it he saw a mutilated corpse.

"Grunt" he side turning to face the korgan. "Grab that… thing and take it to Mordin for study". The tank bread korgan grunted in reply as he went to retrieve the corpse.

While he did that he turned to face Garrus, who had the turian equivalent of a frown look.

"I don't like this Shepard, something just doesn't add up" he side, just as Grunt began to load the body in to the hammerhead.

"Neither do I, and our only sores of information just walked out on us" he replied, his own frown becoming evident.

"Well figure something, Shepard we always do." The turian side trying to make his friend see the positives. "And look on the bright side at least we get to go on a new adventure!" Garrus side; giving his friend a whack on the shoulder.

'_A new adventure' _

END of chapter two.

**A.N let me know what you guys think, review favorite and… stuff. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: Megaton's the place to go-

Dust trekked through the wasteland, old power stations and radio towers past her by. She didn't pay any heed to them she had already learned there secrets long ago. What was really bothering her was how naïve that man was, he seemed like he knew a lot, and she could tell by the taste of his blood that there was something different about him. His blood didn't have the same tingle of radiation, and that little fact intrigued her.

But she couldn't let her curiosity get the better of her. For all she knew he could have just been a front for the Enclave, and the fact that he had access to advanced technology reinforced that theory. Still deep down she wanted to find out, examine his tec as well as his weapons; everything that was on that ship. _'Damn it!' _she inwardly cursed, her fear and paranoia she may have lost a chance to make some allies in a place that always wanted her dead. The only other one that never wanted to constantly kill her was her brother, and he was in the Mojave dealing with some legion or what not.

What also bothered her was the mutants she had been friends with, a ghoul, super mutant, former raider, former slave, hell even a bully from her childhood. And she had never seen those kinds of oddities before.

'_And besides you stabbed him'_ she thought, smiling as she remember the look on his face. A look of alarm when the blade entered his arm pit, even then when he kicked her away it proved he was capable of defending himself. But even if you did have combat experience you would still have to trial and error things until you figured it out, and even than it might be too late.

'_Like me_' she thought, tracing a hand over the scar on her stomach.

_A few days after leaving the vault. _

"_common Eve it's time to get up" her brother Adam said, nudging her with his foot, ever since they had been forced out of the vault they've had to keep moving around. They couldn't afford a house in Megaton that left them with the common house, and even then that was stuffy. _

"_I don't want to; Ad let me sleep for five more minutes" she grumbled to her brother who, side getting quickly annoyed with her. _

"_We need to go hunting, our stomachs aren't going to feed themselves, you know" her brother said, pure annoyance lacing his voice. _

_With some groaning she sat up, and made eye contact with her brother whose face had slight stubble from lack of shaving. His oceanic blue eyes stared back at her expecting. With a sigh she kneeled on to the rusted metal floor to retrieve her hunting rifle, and pack, shrugging her pack on; and slinging her rifle she gave a slight nod for them to move. _

_They spent five hours out hunting mole rats, wild dogs, and radroaches well the meat wasn't as good as the stuff in the vault, it was something to eat. On their way back to Megaton they heard shooting, from what they could tell it sounded like the shooters were having a hard time taking down the shooters.. _

"_Maybe we should just leave that alone" Eve said to her brother, trying to convince him to leave it alone; and just head back home. _

"_Or we could check it out, and see what we can salvage" the greed evident in his voice, she inwardly groaned at what he, had just said. Not wanting to get involved Eve said. _

"_I'm going back home, give me your haul I'll see that it gets cooked" _

_He nodded and handed her the bag full of meat. It only took her about ten minutes for her to get to the gate when she heard screaming. _

"_EVE! EVE! HELP, PLEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELP!" she heard her brother yelling for help and like the loyal sister she was, she ran. Ran as fast as her legs could carry her, not caring that she had dropped the bag of meat, the only thing on her mind was saving her brother. _

_When she got to where her brother had run off, she staggered to a halt. Blood was sprawled out everywhere; severed limbs lay scattered around, as well as what she assumed were there owners. _

_Adam was on the other side of the bloody area, a beast twice the size of anything she had ever seen stood between her and her brother; its legs were curved at the foot. Its razor sharp claws were stained crimson red. It had long spikes running up its back, and when it turned to face her she felt her whole body go numb. Its face was stained with blood and it had several bullet holes in its chest area. The beast didn't even seem phased by them, in her mind it looked like a dragon._

_The creature rushed her, acting on pure instinct she rolled out of the way before it lunged at her. Coming out of her roll rather clumsily, turning to face the dragon like creature she raised her hunting rifle, and pulled the trigger. The kick back nearly knocked her off her feet, having not gotten used to it very much she look to see what kind of damage she did and saw that she only add to the many bullet holes the dragon had. Pulling the bolt back as quickly as possible, she let the shell casing go flying; bullet in place she took aim getting ready to fire again; when in a burl the rifle was knocked out of her hands, and she was thrown back. _

_Landing on the ground with a thud, she was in a complete daze, unknowing of the demon of the wastes bearing down upon her. _

"_Eve!" a voice shouted out to her. "Eve, wake up!" suddenly it all came back in to focus, the creature was looming over her, teeth bared as if ready to take a bite out of her. _

_She reached out for anything, anything at all that could stop her impending death; she felt the handle of something pulling the object towards her she felt the trigger it's weight it wasn't her rifle that was for sure. She maneuvered her weapon to point at the beast's mouth. _

_Time seemed to slow down, the monsters mouth opened, she pulled the trigger, and watched in awe and fear, as the beast's head exploded before her eyes blood was spewed all over her, and her wrist was sprained from the kick back of the shot gun she now realized she was holding. _

_She sat there in shock covered in blood, her pounding heart felt like it was going to burst from her chest. Slowly but surely she felt her brothers hand pick her up, and take her home. _

_It wasn't until he started to carry her that she realized the pain was coming from her abdomen. _

Coming out of her memories, she decided that Megaton would be her dentation to see where she killed her first Deathcalw. But not before she did something first to settle matters with the mysterious stranger, and his mutant friends.

_Normandy_ C.I.C

"Has Mordin delivered any news on that, thing we found?" Commander Tomes Shepard asked EDI. Ever since his encounter with that woman, Dust, he had tried to learn anything he could about this new world they had to call home.

For a while at least until he figured something out.

"Yes, he has requested to speak to you on the matter" EDI's synthesized voice came over the ships coms.

"Thank you EDI, tell him I will be over shortly" he replied to the AI.

"Oh, and tell Joker to find a safe place to set the ship down" he added in, before walking over to the door that led to Mordin solus' laboratory.

"I am quite sure we cannot trust Mister Moreau's ability to land the ship" Shepard stopped mid stride to give the AI's cameras an odd look.

"That was a Joke" shaking his head, Shepard continued to Mordin's lab.

As soon as he walked in to the lab the area, the stench of burning meat, and flesh could be smelt; trying. not to gage he looked to see what the good professor was doing, Mordin stood in front of an odd device wearing a set of goggles', it was blasting fire on to a piece of meat from the thing that Grunt brought in.

By the time he was able to stomach the stench, the device had stopped blasting the chunk of meat; Mordin raised the goggles' to his equivalent of a forehead, and inhaled deeply.

"Shepard perfect timing wanted to ask you questions regarding this specimen." The salarian spoke quickly, as his race was known for.

"What did you want to know? Though I doubt that I could tell you anything about this thing" he said, gesturing to the body that they had recovered; the body was suspended in midair by a mass effect field.

" Aware of that, though the other party seemed to know a lot more about what this was (inhales) should have recruited her would have liked to ask questions." The salarian fished, seeming to not notice one thing.

"She stabbed me" Shepard stated, feeling a bit betrayed by the fact that Mordin held disregard for his wellbeing.

"Also aware of that, not that we, the crew I mean couldn't handle the ship with or without you. (Inhales) you simply inspire confidence within the crew." Shepard stared at him eyes wide, and said.

"You're telling me that you wouldn't be sad if I got killed?" he asked still a little shocked the salarian would say such a thing.

"Death is just a formality believe in reincarnation, life after death something to look forward to (inhales) or not" the professor smiled.

"So you're sa-"Shepard was cut off as Joker's voice came over the ships com.

"Uhh commander you're wanted at the C.I.C incoming transmit ion from… I don't know who" the pilot said cutting out the com as soon as he delivered the message.

Shaking his head Shepard looked back to Mordin.

"I'll talk to you later, mister solus" Shepard said walking out of the lab area.

"Looking forward to it, commander" said; turning back to the dead beast held by the fields.

"Now to continue my study of local wild life" muttered to himself.

Shepard walked up to the C.I.C's command bridge and the accepted message from whoever it was.

He wasn't expecting _her_ to be the one calling.

"_Uhmm… not sure if this is the right way to be calling, but I thought about it and have decided to at least give you some understanding of what kind of hell you've plonked your shelves into, meet me at the bar in megaton and I'll tell you what I know. _

_Dust." _

He smiled to himself he _knew_ she would come around.

Radio station gamma

Dust smiled to herself, exiting the small structure she began the long trek back to Megaton, unknown to Shepard he had just made friends with a very dangerous woman.

Enclave base: location unknown

The enclave courier ran through the halls of their new base, his pounding feet left an echo through them, reaching the main chamber he quickly spotted the man he was looking for.

General Peterson.

"Sir! Sir!" The courier shouted to get his attention; the general politely excused himself to see what the man wanted.

"what is it son?" he asked quickly, his tone irritated; not wanting to waste what little time they had, on a simple courier.

"We've (gasp) just (gasp) received reports (gasp) of the UFO! (Gasp) Sir!" the man said with a salute, trying to keep himself from doubling over.

"Thank you, you are free to leave now" Peterson said with a pat on the shoulder.

"Thank you, sir" he said with one finale salute.

The general turned to face the map of the capital wasteland and thought to himself.

'_With the technology from that UFO we should be able to rebuild America, and with that crazy bitch and her brother out of the way; the only thing that stands in our way now_

_Is the brotherhood in our way'_ he thought proudly, as he saluted the American flag.

END of chapter three.

**A.N: reviews, fallows, favorites, and messages! Always need those! **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four: -for a drink if ye need one.

Shepard had Joker do a scan of the area, and found what he assumed was Megaton. From what the scanners told them the entire thing was made of metal, and had a high radiation sources coming from the center of the place.

"Well the entire world is irradiated, why not its towns right?" Joker tried to make what would be Shepard's second outing in to the new world not as bad as it seemed.

"Let's hope I don't get stabbed again" he commented on his pilots stab at humor, truth was he wasn't looking forward to going back out there, it just felt wrong to him.

"Aw c'mon it's not like the same thing is bound to happen twice, right?" the pilot said still giving humor his best shot as he could, given the circumstances.

Shepard wasn't listing anymore though; instead he focused on the airlock, having decided that the hammerhead would draw too much unwanted attention to themselves. So they had to walk ten miles to get to the place.

'_Heh trail by fire, I guess it is'_ he thought to himself, assuming that there friend would be watching them all the while through the trek of the wasteland.

"Make sure you have plenty of water with you, it's going to be a long walk" Shepard told Thane and Miranda, turning to face them. While he didn't want to bring the Cerberus bitch, she had "_insisted"_ that she go with them, much to his displeasure.

'_Maybe she'll unexpectedly die of some form of disease!"_ the thought made him smile, Miranda dyeing would be a blessing for some of the crew; fortunately his helmet concealed it so she couldn't ask him what was so funny.

"Drell are used to dry places, you forget that our home world was nothing but desert" Thane simply stated.

"Well it looks like you'll love it here" he replied back, at least Thane would get to see something that resembled his home, even if it was the ruins of his.

"_Decontamination in progress" _EDIannounced over the com, just as the sweeping light came over them.

"_Good luck commander"_ Joker said his last farewell, as the air lock door began to rise. Momentarily blinded by the desert sun, he activated the darken function on his helmets visor.

He saw Thane put what looked like sunglasses on, and Miranda put goggles' on.

'_Couldn't just let yourself go blind, huh'_ he thought, his eye slightly twitching.

"All right let's move" checking his Omni tool's map he saw that they needed to go west to get to Megaton.

For over two hours it was an uneventful journey, only caching small glimpses of the wild life, and hearing shooting way off in the distance. When they were walking through a tiny abandoned town they saw a man keeling in the middle of it. Slowly Shepard approached him, not sure what would happen, the man turned to face him when he was no more than a foot away. And what he saw made him feel sick to his stomach.

His ears had been, what looked like stapled keeping them pined, his lips had been cut off as well as his nose. He had long cuts going down from his eyes, and from what he could tell his eye lids had been surgically cut out. And that was just his face, his body was nothing more than skin and bones, he had nothing but a strange caller around his neck. Aside from that Shepard had a clear view that he had been guilded.

"kless, just kill e" he heard the man gurgle out of his on existent lips_, 'killing him would be a gift at this point, would be a gift.'_ Shepard thought,slowly he pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the man's head, pulling the trigger a second later. The bullet was large enough to shatter the man's skull splattering bits and pieces all over. Thane slowly walked up to the body, and arranged it in the way he did Nassana Dantius when they first meat, after he had done this he keeled beside the body and started praying. Giving him a questing look he asked.

"What are you doing?" Thane looked up and answered with.

"Prayers for the innocent and the deceived should never be forlorned, even to souls like this one." A simple truth until Miranda walked up and said.

"How do you know he was innocent? Or deceived? For all we know he could have been a killer before that happened to him." Shepard placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, tired of her always trying to bring logic to everything.

"Let the man have some final rites of passage." She seemed to understand his words for once and stopped talking. Letting Thane finish praying in silence, after he was done they continued Shepard checked his Omni tool to see what the time was and how far from Megaton they were, as the sun was getting low he decided to find a place to rest for the night.

"We'll have to get there in the morning" he said stopping to look around, he noticed a small bundle of buildings on top of a crumbling bridge. Unfortunately the side that they were hopping to walk up to the settlement was completely destroyed, leaving them two choices. Choice one was to walk all the way around, until they found a bridge. Choice two they swim through the water, which was of chores radioactive. Not wanting to keep their contact waiting he made the call for some chemical burns.

"Alright where going to swim through the water to cut across, everyone have your shields at the highest level possible!" he told the group, through Miranda looked uncomfortable at the idea of going through the murky water and said.

"Are you sure that is such a smart idea? Who knows what could be lurking in there!" fear of the unknown evident in her voice, Shepard gave her an irritated look and said.

"If you don't like this you can find another way across." Tired of her constant bitching, he added.

"Since you have a problem with this you will be the first one in." she began to protest but he stopped her, saying. "Your second in command, how would this look to the illusive man if you didn't follow orders?" that got her to compile; she walked to the edge of the water and began her descent.

'_I hope you get radiation posing'_ the silent thought making him slightly chuckle.

Once she gave the all clear, he and Thane followed, there shields shimmered as they swam. Half way across they saw shapes moving around not wanting to stick around he told everyone to pick up the pace. Suddenly he was pulled down and the murky water flooded his vision, something slammed in to his back and drove him deeper. Disorientated for a brief second he tried to get back to the suffice, while his armor did have oxygen, it wasn't built for water combat. He broke the face of the water a few minutes later and saw that Miranda and Thane had made it to the shore and were fighting… crab men?

Swimming as fast as possible he raced to the shore to help his friend fight these things, stepping on to the shore one of the crab people turned to face him. Its body was mostly made of the shell, its arms were pincers that looked like they could do some damage if they got up close. And what he assumed to be a face or head was nestled back in the shell that it would take a crack shot to hit.

The thing charged him; fortunately its shell impeded its movement causing it to be slower than it looked drawing his assault rifle he took careful aim at the small opening. Letting out a series of shots he managed to get at least two bullets into it, before he could finish the thing off however a blue shimmer surrounded the thing making it rise and then slam agents the ground. The sound of bones braking could be heard, and the shell exploded a few seconds later.

Looking back to the lake he saw that more crab men were getting ready to attack. Taking quick aim with his rifle, he was about to let off anther volley of bullets when a loud _'bang'_ sounded in the area. Fallowed by more, shots from what he could only assume was this world's sniper rifle, he looked back to see most of the crabs had been dropped dead. Pieces of meat scattered around there body's.

Deciding to see who to thank he turned around, and came to face a cloaked figure

Just outside megaton.

Dust stood right on the spot where it had died; it had left a scar on her stomach and one across her brother's face. All of this was during her first year out of the vault in the search for their father that had left the vault for the people of the wasteland. He deemed it important to help with the water situation than raise two children that were little more than fifteen.

'_Selfless bastard'_ she thought, it had taken her and her brother a full year to finally track him down. And even than they only got to talk for a few hours, until the Enclave decided to take him away again, this time for good. She had watched in horror with her father's best friend and her brother, as there dad started coughing up blood. And his skin started to plea and fall off like a ghouls.

And then after words they ran away. Not even trying to get her father's body, and when they got to the citadel it was all, _"I am sorry for your loss"_ and _"your father was a good man_". Hell even sentinel lions didn't even seem to bat an eye, they just thrust she and her brother back out there not giving them time to mourn, and when it was all over all she got was a pat on the back for giving the wasteland water.

No one not even the brotherhood gave her a morsel when she was starving they ether said. _"We can't spear the supplies"_ or _"fuck off! It's mine!_" and tried to kill her. And when she finally snapped they jugged her like _she_ was the monster, when in truth they were responsible for making the "_lone_" wander into the thing that kept children up at night. Shaking her head she turned to leave tired of digging up old memories.

Walking back to Megatons front gate, she entered the town quickly making her way to her house. Opening the she stepped in to the small sized building she shut and locked the door, so no thieves could break in. walking over to the small fridge, she threw the door open and grabbed the strongest drink she had. A mixture of vodka, beer, and whisky it was a sure way to keep old, painful memories down. And keep her sedated for a while. Reaching for the bottle she noticed something very bad.

Her hands were shaking.

"Oh no, no, no, no." she said reputedly out loud to herself, the last time her hands started shaking. She had nearly wiped out an entire town. Quickly grabbing the bottle she drank the thing as fast as she could, and called for robotic butler, before the drink could take effect.

"Wadsworth" she called, hearing a door up stairs open, the mister handy appeared.

"How may I serve you, madam" the prim and proper voice that she hatted said.

"Get the… bed... straps" she said the drink already taking effect.

Outside the arefu settlement

The stranger stared at Shepard for a long time. From what he could see of the strangers face, he had many scares under the cowl and hood that he wore. He also had an eye patch on the right; a chunk of that side was missing with the eye.

"You're not from here… are you" the man asked his voice holding just a bit menses, but wasn't completely threatening.

"n-no were not" he stammered trying not to crumble under the man's penetrating stare. He looked over to his companions, not seeming intrigued by Thane. Instead holding his gaze on Miranda, who seemed to get uncomfortable instantly his under his gaze.

"You should take more care of your woman, raiders and slavers would love to get their hands on her" he said gesturing with a nod toward her.

"It would also help you if she didn't dress like a new Vegas stripper from Gomorrah" Miranda was about to retort, but Thane stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder and shaking his head.

"Who are you exactly?" Shepard questioned this man for a name at least, although now that he thought about it he was sure "_Dust"_ wasn't that woman's name.

"Not many have the privilege to know my really name, so I will give you this instead." He said turning to one of the crab men, keeling beside it he produced a machete form his cloak. Unlike the one Dust used this one was longer and finer.

"My name is Atticus" he said, bringing the blade down on its arm, severing the thing from its owner.

"Do you know what these crab things are? Or where we are for that matter?" the man looked up from his cutting, a questing look in his one good eye.

"You are currently in the capitol wasteland the ruins of Americas capitol, these "_things_" as you refer to them, are Mirelurks. A food source for those that know how to hunt them." He finished, putting the Mirelurks the arm in a bag on the inside of his cloak.

"in the town of arefu there is an inn you can rent a room there if you want, though you many need some form of currency to pay the man." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pouch, and tossed it to them.

Shepard caught the pouch, with loud jingle, pulling the small string he looked inside to find it full of bottle caps. Giving Atticus an odd look he asked.

"Bottle caps? What kind of currency is that?" he said getting ready to toss the small bag back, he said.

"That is the currency of this new world, it costs one hundred and twenty caps to rent a room, that's how much is in there." he finished explaining.

"Thank you… I guess" Shepard said stopping himself from throwing the pouch.

Atticus nodded. "I suggest you get to Arefu, bad things happen to people that stay out too long" he said turning to leave.

"Wait you wouldn't happen to know a woman named Dust, would you?" a sad look came in to his eye, he simply replied with.

"They say Adam and Eve fell from the grace of god, let us hope they can return someday." Shepard gave him a confused look as he wondered out in to the wastes, sniper rifle slung over his shoulder.

He side while turning to his crew and said.

"Let's go find a place to sleep."

Outside arefu settlement

The man known to every one as Atticus watched through his rifles scope as the strange group walked up the ramp to the town. For a New Canaanite he had come on rather harsh, but what could you expect from someone in the wastes?

'_No'_ he thought angrily that he would even think like that, as a man of god he was supposed to help people even if his standards of them were low.

The group walked in to the inn were he knew they would be safe, and remembered the question the man had asked him.

'_He asked about Eve, what are you going to do?'_ the silent question made him think, Eve had fallen into less than respectable times, all because no one bothered to show kindness on to a poor soul, a soul that had saved this wasteland time and time again.

'_Ungrateful bastards' _He had been sent from the now rebuilt monastery in Zion to help the courier's sister who was the legendry lone wander.

"What am I going to do?" He side to himself, already fearful of the situation he found himself in.

END of chapter four.

**A.N: ha, ha!** **I have uploaded again! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also if you're fallowing this story I would like to hear from you. Leave a review! **

**P.S thank you to AXZ for leaving reviews and asking questions I do so appreciate it. **


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five: meeting of dimensions.

Megaton settlement, the fallowing morning.

Dust awoke with an ear splitting headache; slowly she opened her eyes only to snap them shut when the light came over her face. Her throat felt dry as the desert mostly from the alcohol she had consumed last night, she tried to get up, only to be stopped by the bed straps that she used only as a precaution when she went through cannibalistic withdrawal.

"Wadswroth!" she shouted, the words were harsh on her dry throat, making it come out as a croke. The robotic butler appeared in the doorway.

"What is it _now_ madam?" the mister handy asked, in its usual_ I have a stick shoved up my thruster port_ kind of voice.

"Water, please." She said trying not to think to much through her splitting headache, she remembered that she had to do something, but she couldn't remember what it was. The mister handy left the room for a second and returned in a flash holding a bottle of aqua purea.

"Thank you, could you let me off the bed?" after the handy placed the bottle on her desk, he turned to face her and undid all of the belt buckles that held her to her prison.

"Thank you" she said, sitting upright and standing, retrieving the water in the process. She heard the robot say.

"If you need me, I will be in the spare room." '_Like always'_ she thought tiredly through her hangover, walking out of her bed room and into the main rooms upper level she looked to her _my first laboratory_ thinking she should make some sort of concoction to help with the pain. Deciding against it, since medaling in alchemy could be dangerous, especially if one did not have a clear mind. Shaking her head she walked over to the_ my first infirmary_ and grabbed a pill container, twisting the cap off she looked inside and saw there were only four left.

"I'll get Wadswroth to get some more from doc Church" she said aloud, swallowing the aspirin pill with some water. The cold liquid felt good on her sore throat, after she put the pill bottle back she walked down the stairs to the main room. Well not as big or glamorous as the one Mr. Burke showed her at the time, the man had made her an offer awhile back and she had _"kindly"_ refused, while she didn't necessarily like megaton, she wasn't going to wipe out a whole town just for some guys view.

"Piece of shit got what was coming to 'em." She smiled at the memory of what kind of justice she had committed, in her time as the fabled lone wanderer.

Tenpenny tower, a few years ago…

"_Please don't do this… w-we can pay you… i-is that what this is about!" the old man pleaded, while she made the noose that would ultimately take his and his silent friends lives. Mr. Burke. _

_The man had been eerily quiet ever since she had knocked them out; silently of chores not wanting the guards to interrupt there _"fun".

"_Mr. Tenpenny, please do be quite I am trying to think." He finally spoke after what had been an hour of, what she assumed was plotting. Nobody in there right state of mind would be quite for their execution. _

"_You know, people will come after you if you decide to go through with this." He said, she already knew that of chores, having spent at least two years in this hellhole. She had learned the ropes a long time ago, having had to deal with many groups of would be assassins once or twice. Finished tying the noose, she turned to him and said. _

"_So you're trying to scare me with threats? Do you know how many talon company merc's I've killed?" he looked over to the old man who shrugged, turning back to face her he said. _

"_How should I know? But if you don't kill us I promises you that _I_ won't." she could tell he was lying right through his teeth, having thought her next words out she said. _

"_I'm curious Burke how much did Mister Tenpenny pay you to blow up a couple dozen _innocent _people." a deep laugh started rumbled from his chest, after nearly a whole three minutes of laughing he collected himself and said. _

"_Innocent! Ha, ha! Innocent do you know what they did _before_ they moved into that distasteful little town! Hmm let me see doctor church was the old medic for the salvers at paradise falls, Moriarty's not only a slaver but a psycho junkie as well. And then there's Jericho the poor ex-raider with a moral dilemma, comes with age I suppose but that still doesn't make him innocent." he spat. Walking up to him in the most casual manner possible, she kneeled beside him and whispered in his ear. _

"_I know." Sitting back a couple inches she continued. _

"_I know what they've done, crimes punishable by death, but they are trying to make amends. Jericho may have been an ex-raider but he now helps to keep Megaton safe. Doc church opened up a clinic to treat people as best he can. And Moriarty… well let's just say you are right on that one." She finished, standing she went to retrieve the noose that she had placed down on the small table. _

"_Now than" She said, swinging the rope in circles. _

"_Who wants to go first?" _

Burke had been the first one to take the noose, the sound of his neck braking had stayed with her for the rest of that day. Her brother did ask where she had been, even though they had been out of the vault for more than two years he had stilled worried about her.

A knock sounded at the door, looking to it quickly she pulled out her knife and approached. If it was the regulators than that might have made things more complicated. Opening it slowly she saw a man dressed in a usual caravan outfit.

"I have a letter for one Miss Eve; I was told she lived here?" he said as soon as he noticed her.

"Yeah that's me, whose the letter from?" she asked, though she had a pretty good idea who it was from.

"I believe it is from the new ruler of New Vegas, though he wouldn't give me a name." he said with a frown.

"No matter all he wanted me to do was give you this." He continued, coming out of his thoughts and returning to his cheerful self. He pulled out a box and handed it to her.

"Thank you, if you do see the man who hired you give him this." she said taking the box from him and pulling out an envelope and handing it to him.

"Certainly, through you will have to pay me of chores." He said.

"In that case take this too" she replied handing him another envelope from behind the door, he took it with a nod and she closed the door.

Opening the letter her brother sent her she read the first line, that always started with the prayer that there father taught them when they were kids.

"_You are alpha and I am omega you are the beginning while I am the end. We will give on to them that is a thirst of the waters of life and death, freely." _

"Can't believe you still fallow this crap, brother" she muttered.

"_Dear Eve I hope things are well, and the capitol wasteland has treated you well in the past few months that I have been away. I know it must be hard to live there, what with all the Regulators chasing after you, it pisses me off that those insafirbol assholes may be hurting you as I wright this. I have sent someone to keep you safe, don't worry you can trust him for now. But do be aware of him, while I may have helped his people rebuild their society they are not above suspicion. Take precautions to ensure your safety, but most importantly how are the symptoms from… I can't even say it. For the hundredth time since I started writing these letters tell me how the condition I left you is, is it improving is it worsening, please sister tell me. _

_I await your reply on the desert wind. _

_From Adam. _

"Yes brother, it is improving" she whispered under her breath, while she did love her brother he hhad left her in a sorry state for a human being. Crumpling the paper into a ball she through it in to the trash bin. Checking her P.I.P BOYs notes she saw what she had forgotten, her meeting with that stranger. Looking at the time she figured there was plenty of time for some _"hunting"_.

And since she was going through withdrawal ant person she found was going to have a bad day. Be it innocent or guilty.

Arefu settlement inn.

_Ashly continued to walk towards Shepard, her futures becoming more and more grotesque as she got closer and closer, he reached for his gun only to find it not there. The ghoulified Ash started running at him, closer and closer she drew, as for the first time since becoming a specter. Fear and panic set in for the first time since the thresher maw attack on Akuze that battle had left him scarred for life. Ash set upon him raising a clawed hand attached to a boney arm Shepard closed his eyes and waited for his death, accepting his fate only one word in his mind. _

"_I am sorry." _

Shepard bolted up right panting and covered in sweet, checking his Omni tool to see what the time was he was surprised to see that it was well after twelve p.m. close to one o'clock. Deciding that now was a good time to get moving; he tried to get up and was momentarily surprised to find someone else in his bed. When he saw who it was however the surprised died instantly.

"Miranda, get the hell out of my bed!" he shouted making her nearly go flying out of his bed, naked as the day she was born, being the gentile man that his mother raised his hand to cover his eyes.

"i-I am so sorry c-commander, I was j-just trying to-"he cut her off with a wave of his other hand and said.

"if you ever try to do that again I will personally feed you to Grunt when we get back!" he stated still furious with her, sure she had brought him back to life, but right now they were In an alternate universe with little more to go on than some woman, a corpse, and a crazy one eyed freak. He sighed and said.

"Get dressed and then we'll be heading to Megaton in a few." she nodded and proceeded to make a fuss of getting dressed, still hoping for him to change his mind. After she had the zipper to her uniform up she gave him one final lusty once over, he narrowed his eyes at her and it seemed she got the message. 

Getting dressed himself, which only took five minutes for the second skin that helped monitor his vitals, and ten for his N7 armor. After he had the last piece of the set on he walked out of the room to see a man talking with Thane, from the look of it the man was trying to figure out what Thane was or what he had mutated from. The man gave up after he had said something and walked away; Shepard came up behind him and asked.

"How was that conversation with one of the locals?" Thane turned to face him and said.

"The man was just wondering what I was, I told him I was a rarer case of mutation though he didn't believe me of chores" his answer came swift as his ability to end life, nodding he said.

"We should get out of here as soon as possible; I don't want to keep our contact waiting." Thane nodded in return and moved off of the wall he was leaning on. They walked out of the inn and Miranda joined them soon after, walking down the ramp they set off for Megaton.

It had only taking them five hours to get to the town, and when they arrived at the gate he almost couldn't believe that it was a town to him it looked like a junkyard. An odd looking robot stood out at the front of it, the thing had an old cowboy hat on and the bot looked as if it had been made out of spear parts. A man with what looked like a two headed cow was also there, from what Shepard could see the man was bartering with the woman he was talking too.

Walking past the seen and in to the junk town they were greeted by an African American man that wore the same styled duster that Dust had worn, only his had a sheriffs badge on it like the robot out side he also had an old cowboy hat on.

"Howdy there partners names Lucas Simms, town sheriff, mayor too when the need arises I hope you two aren't going to start any trouble in my town." The now know sheriff said to them, one thing did catch Shepard's attention in that sentence through.

"Two? There are three of us." Shepard said, a sad look came over the man's face and he said.

"Only mutants that are allowed in to Megaton, are supper mutants and ghouls your friend there doesn't match ether of those, I'm sorry." The man said, and Shepard got an idea and said.

"Couldn't we pass him off as a ghoul?" the sheriff looked back to Thane said.

"I suppose we could, but for me to change the records you'll need to pay me." He stated flatly.

"How much?" through he knew he wouldn't like the answer.

"Two thousand caps to keep the brotherhood off my back." The answer nearly knocked the wind out of him.

"Don't worry sheriff I'll pay the fee for his friend." A famine voice said, turning to see who it was he was surprised to see Dust standing there.

"Oh, ok than Dust meet me at my house and you can drop the money off." He said with a tilt of his hat walking off towards one of the houses on the right. Shepard face her fully now and asked.

"Thank you for the assist." She just gave a nod, she hadn't changed one bit since she stabbed him two days ago. From what little of her arms that he could see she was very muscular, her dark brown hair was greasy from lack of washing making it appear almost black. Her honey gold eyes stared back at him, taking in his appearance.

His armor was red and grey, and had an N7 on the right breast plate, his hair was a light brown and his blue eyes reminded her of her brother. His features were hard from the combat he must've seen. He had a slight stubble coming in but you could only see it if you looked close enough. She didn't have much time to relay take in his features.

"Well you survived guess I owe Jericho that drink." She said disappointment in her voice.

"You still owe me that drink for getting hear." He said, an annoyed look came onto her face and she said.

"Well shit why don't I buy everybody a drink." Several people piped up and started walking over to her, before they got any closer she turned to them and said.

"That was rhetorical." She said flatly, everybody went back to what they were doing, a few cursed her under their breaths. Turning back to face him she asked

"Want to get a drink? It's on me." She said with a wink, a relay bad feeling scratching at the back of his head.

**A.N sorry for taking so long haven't been sleeping well, anyway just thought you guys should know this story is inspired by electrasy cosmic castaway tis is a good song and it goes well with this story. **

**Also thank you again to Axz for asking when I was going to do charter descriptions hope that's enough for you :3 **

**Hope to update sooner next time but I'm not sure. **

**Thaxmax. **


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N: I am a disclaimer, I only own the O.C's in here.**

Chapter six: plans and pain.

Dust lead them through what was the settlement called Megaton, the place looked as though it would fall with so much as a tap, let alone people walking on the platforms that held all of the various shops and homes to its citizens. Walking along one of them she made various gestures to the many shops that they passed along the way to the bar, telling them which ones sold food weapons and miscellaneous items that could be used for any number of purposes. They passed a few men and woman that were dressed in some sort of armor, they gave Dust, who had a hood and cowl drawn that concealed her face, and his group suspicious looks. Wondering what the problem was he asked.

"What's the deal with them?" she turned to face him, her honey gold eyes staring at him from the blackness of her mask and hood, her words came out and in a whisper so he had to strain his ears to hear.

"They are the brotherhood of steel, there a bunch of assholes that think we; the locals of the capitol wasteland aren't worth a cap to keep alive. They are usually after lost technology so as we don't blow are selves up again, after I "_helped"_ beat the Enclave they kicked me out." The anger and distaste was clear as day in her voice.

"What did they kick you out for?" he heard Miranda ask from behind, while he couldn't see her face right now he could tell that she was smiling.

"Heh, well pretty girl let's just say that me and the _"good_" elder didn't see eye to eye on some things. And when the eastern branch showed up the B.o.S took to playing government."

"But what did they kick you out for?" she turned and began again towards the saloon, once they were at the door she side and answered while turning to face them again.

"My brother and I didn't like what they were doing with the project purity plant, so we hit a few of their caravans." She said, continuing with her story.

"we already knew which routs they were taking so it was fairly easy to know when and where to hit, but when the elders daughter got involved he decided to quit the game." Her eyes took a look of anger and sadness to them.

"I however kept at it; shipment after shipment was hit until Sarah got involved." She took a shaky breath and continued, she could feel tears coming to the brim of her eyes but she refused to let them fall.

"They had set a trap for me…"

_Two years ago… _

_Dust proud the water onto the wasteland floor, she knew that the settlements were suffering for this but she didn't care anymore, all that mattered to her was causing pain to the brotherhood. _

_A laser rifle shot rung out and struck her the arm, the pain wasn't at all as what it had been in the Enclave war, in there she had been shot up with bullets, plasma, laser hell even a mini nuke, all of which she had survived. Turning she saw a brotherhood knight running for cover behind a destroyed car. A few more knights emerged from the hill side all of which she ignored, the one person she had her eyes locked on was the one leading the most elite unit in the B.o.S. _

_Sentinel Sarah Lyons, daughter of Elder Owyn Lyons and her brother's girlfriend. _

_Shit. _

"_This is sentinel Lyons of the Lyons pride place down your weapons and remove your mask!" she heard her friend shout out once she was in cover. _

"_I'm afraid I can't do that miss Lyons, you see I have a vendetta that needs completion and you also see that vendetta will be halted if you captor me." Her filtered, diluted voice came through her mask, the mask was a gift from a friend from a place she helped liberate a few months ago. _

"_Oh yeah? And what exactly is your vendetta?" she heard back, Dust knew that while she and her were talking the pride and the few knights that she brought with her were lining up shots. _

"_It is simple" she said turning her back to the brotherhood, in this argument and in realty. _

"_I want to cripple the brotherhood." She heard a few mummers and whispers being exchanged, that was the moment she had been waiting for. In a flash she had thrown three knives in to each of the knight's visors, she had made sure to throw all of them with enough force that it went through the thick glass. _

"_Open fire!" she heard Sarah yell to the disorganized troops, by the time they had shoots lined up another three had already fallen. _

'Well that takes care of the knights'_ she thought taking cover behind a ridge. Suddenly something snapped within her, she felt her heart rate pick and her pupils go dilated, the world seemed to just slow down to a crawl. One of the pried, she wasn't sure which one, came around the corner in a blaze of speed she had the man on the ground bleeding furiously. She ripped the blade she had stuffed into the man's ribcage free, charging around the corner she could see the bullets and lasers flying but not at their regular speed. _

'What is going on?'_ she couldn't believe what she was seeing, walking up to another one of the prides members this one caring a mini gun that was spewing bullets, slowly she tilted the man's head up ever so slightly. Placing her blade on the man's neck she aliped a bit of presser and ran it across, the man slowly collapse to the ground, his blood staining the wasteland floor. _

"**Go, do it" **_she heard a voice say deep from inside her head, she didn't know why but she obeyed its command. One by one the pried fell until there was only one left, the world speed up again just as she knocked away Sarah's laser rifle they meet eyes for a quick second, hers locked on to Eves and it was almost like she could see everything there was to know about the sentinel. All the determination to live up to her father, all the lonely nights spent without someone to read her a bed time story, Eve could see all the resentment she held to her father. _

_It reminded her of herself. _

_Sarah pulled out a combat knife and lunged at her, but unbeknown it's to her Eve was a lot more experienced than her in hand-to-hand, and with mealy weapons. Dust had grabbed the arm with the blade, and twisted the arm at the elbow. She disarmed her and kicked her to the ground, when Sarah turned to face her thins time there were tears in her eyes. _

"_You bitch! You fucking bitch!" she screamed, charging once again, her fist reared back to punch, when she throw it she caught the fist in one of her hands and delivered one of her own with the other. _

"_What's the matter sentinel?" she said in a mock tone. _

_Sarah gestured to the bodies behind her and she screamed again. _

"_You just took away my friends, my family!" she tried to get up again but before she could Eve kicked her in the face, causing blood to drip from her noose. _

"_Oh boohoo, you know I have succeeded in my vendetta." It dawned on sentinel Lyons that this had been the strangers plan. _

"_You… you planed this all along! Didn't you!" Lyons screeched, tears streaming down her face. _

"_Well, not exactly all of it but the pried showing up and being disposed of will deal a hug blow to the brotherhoods moral and with the daughter of the elder-." Eve was cut off as a fist came out of nowhere. Looking to see who her attacker was she was shocked beyond words. _

"_Sarah, get out of here now me and this bitch need to talk." Her eyes bulged and she shrieked. _

"_What Adam you know this bitch!" _

"_Unfortunately yes, now please leave." Sarah stomped over to one of the fallen knights and picked up his laser pistol, marching back she pointed it at the woman that had taken everything without so much as filching. _

"_No Adam I want this bitches head on a platter, whatever the fuck a platter is." She growled, her hands shaking as she still pointed the pistol at Eve. Adam side and told her sister to take the mask off. _

"_Eve please take the mask off so Sarah can see." A shocked look came onto her face as she watched one of the people she had considered a friend take the off the gas mask. A sadistic look splayed itself across her face when she saw the grief she had inflected on the woman. Adam walked over to his sister and did something that he would regret for the rest of his life. _

_He slapped her. _

_Pain and shock shot through her body, she couldn't believe it her beloved brother had hit her. After all they had been through after all they had survived together he had left her for a brotherhood tramp. _

"_I'll see to it your never allowed into the citadel again." She heard Sarah scream before she kicked her in the gut. Even as she heard there footsteps move out of hearing rang she laid there, the shock of what her brother had done kept her body frozen. After a few hours had gone by and the sun hung low she moved slowly but surely back to Megaton. _

_When she arrived her brother was there, he shot up as soon as the door opened. _

"_Eve!" he greeted walking up to embrace his sibling, only when he got close to her she pushed him away. _

"_What's wrong?" when she heard the question she punched him in the face he fell to the rusted floor, tears began to stream down her checks, she yelled. _

"_Don't you fucking play coy with me you bloody fucking know what's wrong!" she couldn't believe him, he had fucking slapped her to prove loyalty to a tramp. _

"_look." he said sternly. _

"_If I hadn't done it things would have been a lot worse than it is now." As if that made her feel better. _

"_Get out." She said fatly. _

"_What?" _

"_I said get out; you're not welcome here anymore." A look of pain crossed over his eyes before he said. _

"_Fine let me get my things." _

"_Leave them, by all rights this house and everything in it now belongs to me." Those words were just a '_fuck you' _in disguise. _

"_besides." She smirked. _

"_I'm sure your little brotherhood whore is willing to take you in, in more ways than one." That comment sent her brother over the edge; he lunged up at her hoping to seize her neck, only she was quicker. Quickly she grabbed his arm and hit just above the elbow with enough force to nearly break it. She opened the door which hit him in the head stunning him for just enough time for her to throw him out the door. She closed and locked it quickly, expecting to hear banging on the door, only it never came. _

_That was the night that her brother left for the Mojave Wasteland. Two years to date he must've forgiven her cause he sent her letters, gifts and the like. _

"And that was why I left the brotherhood, well not really a reason at least it's an answer." Dust could feel the tears streaming down her cheeks, not out of sadness more out of anger than anything else. Suddenly she felt arms warp around her, not in a harmful way but in comforting way. The arms tightened as if they were never going to let go.

"I'm sorry." She heard the commander whisper; she could tell by his tone that he had lost people two.

"It's fine I've learned to deal with the pain a long time ago." She turned back to the saloon door and pulled it open, the smell of smoke and alcohol came at the group in full force, Shepard and Miranda nearly doubled over, while Thane didn't let any sings show that he had been affected. Walking in to the rather small bar he noticed servile things the most worrying was the corpse attending the bar.

"What the hell is that!?" Shepard yelled reaching for his pistol; Dust stopped him before he could line up a shot.

"Take it easy, he's harmless." Shepard was dumfounded how could a corpse be walking around and… talking?

"Well, you going to stand there and stare at me? Or are you going to order something to drink." The mort asked.

"Yes Gob, four drinks please." Dust said to the ghoul, she had always liked Gob, she had done him and everyone else a favor when she tricked him into coming out to that shack just outside town.

"What was that thing?" she heard the good commander ask.

"Well back when the bombs dropped people survived, somewhat, the radiation made their skin and hair fall off and out. Turning them in to ghouls." She explained, there drinks arrived a second later, brought out by the ghoul. Dust grabbed hers and chugged it, as soon as she was half way through, she slammed the glass mug down on the table.

"Now than!" she bolstered loudly, making a few of the patrons look there way.

"Let us hear what your problem is!"

**A.N: I'm back! I think? Any ways here is a new chapter enjoy! Oh and leave a review please! Or at least a view :3**


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N sorry for the long wait got caught up doing stuff, anyways here is a new chapter for you AND there is a new story on my page. It's called Outcast take a looks see if you want and as always leave a review! **

**Enjoy! **

Chapter seven: next moves.

Dust sat in her place in the bar listening to Shepard speak of his plight, from what she could put together they were from a parallel universe were Shepard had been killed and brought back to life at the expense of a whole load of resources. And had been giving the task of learning everything about the _Reapers_, a bunch of sentient machines that wiped out all life in the universe, to her they just sounded like a tone of robo-brains put to gather.

"… and lastly we have two crew members that need a specific type of food." Hearing this Dusts eye visible twitched, one would have been hard to deal with as she had enough alien food from the _Zeta_ that he or she could hopefully digest without dyeing on her. But two would be out right next to impossible.

Unless?

"Well… I am sorry to say this but we may have to kill off one of your crew members." She stated flatly, she noticed Shepard's mouth go agape the shock clearly written on his face.

"Now that's out of the question" She could clearly tell that her words had struck a nerve form the harshness of his voice. The tone reminded her of a time when she would have defended any of her friends, but that time was long gone.

"I said we _might _have to not that we will" her voice came out irritated.

"Never the less we are _not_ killing any of the crew or my friends" his voice rising to an almost shout.

"Hey drunky! If you're going to fight her than you might want to take it out side… and bring a coffin when you do." Gob's scratchy voice came from around the corner.

That succeeded in keeping him quite, well she could understand Shepard's feelings, she couldn't dwell on the fact that one of her friends may die today or tomorrow. Sure she would be pissed and probably eat the bastard that did it, but never the less it was just a part of life out in the wastes.

"Look, I know what it's like to lose people but out here it's a part of life. If you had a choice of saving every person you meet than it's liable to get you killed somehow." She explained as best she could.

"And how would you know what it's like to try to save lives. From your attitude you wouldn't give a shit if someone died." Her hands clenched into fists, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed Shepard's companions began to slowly reach for their arms. Taking a deep breath she unclenched her hands and stood.

"I'm going out for a bit, I've paid Gob so you and your friends are covered for a night." She began walking towards the door, sensing that he may have screwed up he tried to grab her by the arm to stop her and apologize. Once his hand was around her arm he said.

"Look I'm-"he was cut off Dust whirled around and keened him in the groin, hard. Once he had fallen to his keens she proceeded to punch him in the face seven times, all the while calmly saying.

"Don't. you. Ever. Do. Or say. That. Again!" on the final punch he felt his nose begin to leak blood, how it hadn't done that under the barrage of fists remained a mystery, in his daze he felt her foot place itself on his chest and push sending him to the ground.

It wasn't until after her tantrum that she took note of the two pistols pointed at her head deciding that it was best not beat the shit out of everybody she turned and left. Shepard sat on his keens as Miranda and Thane dropped to theirs to see if he was alright.

"I told you not to piss her off." The ghoul said, after he had shrugged off Miranda.

"I didn't take you seriously" he replied, holding his nose to stanch the bleeding.

"Well yeah nobody ever takes the ghoul seriously until it's too late. And at first glance she may not look like much, but Eve can kick just about any ones ass if they piss her off in the wrong way."

"Eve?" Shepard raised an eyebrow at hearing the different name; the ghoul had an uncomfortable look all of a sudden and starched the back of his head.

"(chough) err I mean Dust, Eve is just a nick name that we the settlers gave her as a sort of joke." The ghoul continued to look uncomfortable up until he side and dropped it all together.

Suddenly the bar door burst open to ravel two armored men, like the ones they had seen on their way here. They held odd looking weapons that were squared baste, and had a cylinder locked in to place near the butt of the gun. Some people put their hands up while others ducked under the tables as the men lined up shots.

A woman with blonde hair walked into the bar, clearly the men's superior. She eyed everyone in the room an odd look passing over her face when she spotted him and his group, but just shrugged it off. After she had inspected everyone in the room she turned to one of her subordinates and said with a strong tone.

"I want you to stay here and keep an eye out for her, if she comes back detain her by any means necessary." The man nodded and she spared a glance in his direction.

"And keep an eye on them." She added nodding in his general direction; the man did a salute and replied with "sir" before she walked out. Confused Shepard turned to Gob and asked.

"What the hell was that all about?" the ghoul didn't answer, he just shook his head.

"I think that was the woman that Dust spoke about when she told us why the B.o.S hates her so much." Miranda whispered, not wanting to draw the attention of the man standing near the door. Shepard thought about it if that woman, Sarah was here in Megaton than that would make getting information out of Dust a lot harder.

"We will have to take extra precautions in order to not draw unwanted attention to ourselves." Thane spoke after having been silent for most of the time they were talking.

"We'll have to find Dust and get as much info as we can, seeing as how I messed everything up with the meeting." Shepard said, feeling bad at how he had gone and pissed off one of the only people he trusted in this unknown world.

_Spring vale. _

Dust sat by the fire as her food cooked, when she got pissed like this she would always go out and do something like this, wither it be killing raiders or slavers, salvaging for ammunition or food. In this case she was having raider for a nice snack, seeing as how she was going in to withdrawal it seemed like the best course of action for now.

She tended to the fire as she watched the fire flicker in the evening light, thinking back when she had first done this with her brother. Their first try at starting a fire had gone a little awry when Adam set his foot on fire by accidentally spilling some of the gasoline when they couldn't afford a house in Megaton.

The sceptical had been something to remember, Adam was pouring some oil they had found in a car on to some sticks. The splashing of the liquid hitting the dried twigs had spilled on to his boot, when he had got the fire started he had left his foot a little too close, and it had caught flame. Adam in the literal sense had screamed like a girl when he was trying to get it out.

Eve on the other hand had just sat there laughing at the site, every time she tried to get up and help him she would fall back over in a fit of laughter.

She smiled at the memory and smelled her food was just about done, looking in to the presser cooker that she had pinned up into a makeshift cooking spit she saw that the stew was indeed done. Pouring the stew in to a bowl that she kept around for when she needed to have a meal on the road, inhaling the smell of cooked human flesh with some dog meat to spice up the flavor, she licked her lips in anticipation. Drinking some of the froth from the bowl, she began her meal.

A nice well boiled leg.

Suddenly her ears perked up, having heard something far off in the distance. The footsteps only proceeded to get louder as who or whatever it was drew closer and closer. Slowly she put down the bowl, gently reached into her hooded duster, unsheathing two poisoned throwing knives. Once the footsteps had stopped she whirled around.

Only to come face to face with someone wearing a hood, cowl and eye patch, with scaring around the right eye.

"Sorry if I scared you." The man's voice came through slightly muffled by the cowl covering his face. She scowled at him and said.

"You didn't scared me, just wasn't expecting someone like you to come crawling up to me." He just shook his head smiling under the mask.

"He did say you could be someone to joke around" he commented as he took a seat on the opposite side of her.

"Who's "he"?" she questioned.

"He also said that you can be a major hard-ass." That just succeeded in annoying her.

"Hey! I asked who is this "he" guy is and why "he" sent you to annoy me." He just looked at her as if she was that clueless.

"Your brother sent me to keep an eye on you; you could say that I am your new guardian angel." He stated. She briefly remembered that her brother mentioned something about someone watching over her, in his letter.

Only one thing stood out in her mind.

"What happened to the other guy? The one in the dress coat carried a forty four?" he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Never heard of him." the newcomer said, she sighed at that hanging her head low. She looked back up to still see him sitting there, which made her frown. Usually her "guardian angels" would only make themselves known in the heat of battle.

"Mind giving me a name? Or should I just call you "the mysterious" stranger?" that succeeded in making him chuckle.

"My name is-"he was cut off as a sniper shot rang out, hitting her in the shoulder. She let out a cry as the bullet ripped right through her shoulder blade, causing her to spill her stew and making blood splatter over the camp.

Her vision darkened from the pain; even with all of her genetic modifications she was still only human. She felt hands clamp over her wound as several shots were heard before she passed out.

Atticus emptied his pistol in the direction were the shooter could be, his hand still pressed to her wound as blood seeped through his fingers. Quickly returning his attention back to her, he pulled out a bottle of vodka and a rag. Dowsing the rag in the alcohol he applied it to the bullet hole, trying to stanch the bleeding.

As soon as he had stopped the bleeding as best he could he reached in to his bag again and pulled out a stim-pack. Quickly removing the safety cap of the needle, he plunged it in the affected area and pushed the substance in to her blood stream.

Another shot rung out, this one striking him in the arm just above the elbow, he ground his teeth and did his best to ignore the pain. One more shot came, this one hitting Eve's cooking spit, unfortunately for the shooter he had seen the flash of the rifle and knew exactly were the bastard had hidden himself.

Unslinging his own rifle he took aim, and spotted the most disturbing thing that anyone in the capitol waste land could see.

An Enclave infiltrator.

He pulled the trigger and watched in amusement as the bullet struck the man in the head, just below the helmets eye port. The infiltrators head snapped back and he quickly rose to his feet and turned to run. But before he could Atticus let one more shot go, which hit the man in the ass.

Atticus let out a content sigh, and looked back down to the injured Eve.

'_If I don't patch you up your brother will kill me in the worst way imaginable._' The thought itself made him shudder in fear.

_Enclave base, a few hours later… _

The infiltrator limped through the halls, the bullet in his ass having been removed a couple of hours prior to his return. That wasn't what he was worried about; General Peterson had been furies with him since he didn't see his mission all the way through.

"_Killing that bitch is a number one priority, do I make myself clear!" _he had been told not to fail and he did, not only that but he had gotten _shot_ in the ass! He had tried explaining what had happened, but the General didn't want to hear anything of it.

It was that entire guys fault, the one in the cloak and mask. If it hadn't been for him the Lone Wanderer would be dead right now and he would have been promoted to head of the infiltration branch of the Enclave.

"Next time" he muttered to himself as he looked in the mirror in his quarters.

"Next time, I won't miss."

**A.N leaves a review, and as always, 3 u guys!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys soooooo sorry for the long wait, to explain this I did not know how to do this chapter but here it is! I hope you enjoy and don't forget to leave a review! Please. **

Chapter eight: escape from Megaton.

Shepard paced inside the small room that he, Thane and Miranda, were staying in. the room in itself was not very large having only one bed and enough space for his pacing. Shepard had made the decision to let Miranda have the bed, even though he wanted to make her sleep out in the hallway.

Shepard just had no respect for the woman; she was too arrogant in his eyes, that and the fact that everyone they had met on there journey through the universe to stop the collectors she had tried to use to give Cerberus an advantage over the other species.

"I wonder where Dust has gone off to." She commented offhandedly, Shepard just let out a tired and annoyed sigh. Even her voice was a bother to him and every time he was thinking of a decision she had to open her mouth.

But she did have a point; Dust should have come back by now even if she had messed up his noise to the point where he needed to use medi-gel to fix the cartilage in it, she was still a source of information.

"Perhaps we should search for her" Thane offered, the sound of his voice made Shepard and Miranda slightly jump as he had been quite since the whole ordeal began.

"Maybe we shouldn't, god only knows what could be out there" Miranda added. She did have a point, while he did want to go searching for their informant, he couldn't run the risk of one of his team getting killed.

Unless it was Miranda of course.

"hmmm…" Shepard placed his index finger on top of his chine while his thumb rubbed under it. He ran all the scenarios through his mind, he could go look for her and ether ask nicely for the information, or he could go find her beat her to pulp until she spoke. They needed whatever intelligence they could get on this new world so they could start devising a way to get back to their solar system.

"I vouch we go search for her. While she may not let it show, she still has good in her heart." Thane cast in his vote so to speak.

"How could you want to go out to search, even though you have no idea what could be out there!" Miranda said her voice slightly agitated.

"It is your choice commander, should we go look for the person who could save us? Or should we cower in the city of scrap?"

Shepard continued to think until he came up with an answer.

"Miranda, I want you to stay here in megaton while me and Thane go search for Dust." That was his final decision on the argument.

"I… understood commander." Shepard knew that she wanted to argue more, but knew better of it.

Shepard and Thane walked over to the door and exited the small room, the pungent odor of cigarettes and alcohol hit theme in full force. While omega could be bad at least that place had a semi working filtration system, this place had no such luxury. They walked down the few steps that lead to the upstairs part of the building; most of the steps had what looked like vomit, cigarette ashes, and what appeared to be bullet holes and shell casings on and in them.

Once they had reached the ground floor they had noticed two things. One was that the B.o.S agent that had been ordered to keep watch over them was gone. And the second was that the same man was in a bar fight with one of the locals.

"Now would be a good time to leave" Thane whispered in his ear. Nodding in agreement the duo made their way to the door and snuck out without so much as a sound; once they were outside they began the walk around all of the cat walks trying to get to the city gate.

After half an hour of walking, asking merchants for help and avoiding B.o.S agents they had finally arrived at the gate, which was made of two rusted steel doors that looked like they had been pieced together from the haul of some form of aircraft. Pulling the leaver that opened the doors was a joint effort; once the task was done the doors began to slowly screech open.

Shepard kept an eye open for any B.o.S agents, while Thane kept watch on the doors progress. A few pass byers gave them suspicious looks while others paid no heed to what they were doing. On one of the cat walks a group of what Dust had called Knights spotted them, they split up into two groups and started rushing towards the nearest let off.

"How's the door coming Thane?!" Shepard shouted over the grinding screech of the doors.

"Nearly done!" the reply came quick as was the custom of working with an assassin.

Shepard spotted five of the squad of ten running towards them from the right. Unholstering his assault rifle, he crouched low and let off ten controlled bursts that hit the men square in the legs, bringing two of the five to their knees.

The three remaining continued to rush them, not wanting to kill them Shepard reholstered his rifle and pulled out his pistol and fired servile shots in to the remaining group. Bringing the rest to their knees.

By this time the other five from the other group had been rushing in to positions and trying to line up shots to take in case he didn't come quietly. One of the men, who he assumed was the leader, walked forward, an odd looking rifle held at his side.

He speared a glance at his wounded men, a look of astonishment on his face, he turned back to regard Shepard and Thane, who now had his submachine gun drawn on the man.

"Quite a bit of impressive work you did there, not many people have weapons or ammunition that can tear through power armor like that." He said his voice calm like his demeanour.

"Tell me, what your name is?" the man clad in some form of advanced model armor than his sbordernets from the shoulder down.

"You first" Shepard's voice came out untrusting, he hadn't even given a single for someone to grab his wounded men.

"Very well, my name is paladin Gale. I was asked by the commanding officer in Megaton to retrieve you from that filthy saloon you and your friends were staying in." Gale explained.

"And just who exactly is the commanding officer here?" Shepard questioned.

"Ah that would be Sentinel Lake; you may have seen her she was the one who bragged into that place looking for the outlaw, Eve."

"Eve?" Shepard had heard the man they had met outside Arefu say something about Adam and Eve, and again in the bar when the ghoul had slipped up. Sensing a connection Shepard asked.

"Who is this Eve? And what did she do to become an outlaw?" Gale just smirked at him.

"Eve is responsible for the disappearance of at least twenty five water cravens, and is wanted by elder Sarah Lyons personally for the murder of the Lyons pride." That summed it up for Shepard, Dust was Eve, but one thing stood out for Shepard.

"What about her brother? Wasn't he involved in any way?" before Gale could answer a stern famine voice answered the question.

"He was cleared of all charges after he saved the Elder from his psychotic sister." A woman with blonde hair stepped forward.

"Paladin Lake" Gale did a salute to his commanding officer. The woman in front of Shepard was short, ranging around five foot six, she was not at all tall but her demeanour was of _'I'll kick your ass if you say anything that displeases me or our superior.'_

"I am Sentinel Lake, I would appreciate to know the name of who I am speaking to." Lake's eye bored into his letting out a sigh of defeat he gave them his name.

"I am commander Tomes Shepard" Lake raised an eyebrow looking unconvinced of who he said he was.

"A commander? Sorry but we have no records of there being a commander Shepard not even in the codex." Lake spun around to face Gale whispering orders to him, by this time the gate had fully opened and was letting in a hot wasteland breeze. Shepard knew it was rude to leave in the middle of a conversation, but he had no more time to stand around talking. Slowly turning around he and Thane began to walk off when he heard Lakes voice.

"By order of the Brother Hood and by law of the codex you two are under arrest for false information of identity and rank." He heard servile of the men and woman unholster there weapons. Sighing loudly Shepard looked to Thane, giving a slight nod Thane spun around, shimmering with the blue aura of his biotics. Before the B.o.S agents had time to respond he had sent a biotic wave knocking a few of them to their feet the rest that hadn't been affected began shooting. Red laser streaks came from the tip of their rifles, in which Thane tried to deflect only for it not to work and Thane took three shots, two to his lower abdomen and the third striking him in the chest. Staggering for a brief moment Thane fell to his knees coughing and heaving.

See his friend in trouble Shepard pulled out his submachine gun and his pistol dual welding both he unloaded the clips in to the group of solders. Rushing over to his fallen friend Shepard hooked his arm under Thanes and began moving away from the gate. Shots whizzed past their heads as they made it around a rock formation. Thane continued to heave beside him, spearing a glance at his wounds Shepard saw that the laser shots had ripped right though his shields, and while they weren't deep they were still smoking. Shepard pulled out a grenade and threw it around the corner.

While they were busy with that Shepard began to apply medi-gel to the affected areas. Once that was done Shepard rehooked his arm around Thane and began carrying him again. Shepard heard the grenade go off. Lucky for Shepard and Thane they were well enough away from Megaton for them to have to search for them.

"That was close" he panted as he set Thane down to sit on a nearby rock.

"Miranda *chough* will *chough* have to *chough* find us *chough*." Thane proceeded to go into a coughing fit, in which Shepard crouched down to apply some more medi-gel.

"Just hang in there we'll get some help for you, and we'll find Dust or Eve or whatever her name is" after Shepard did all he could for Thane's wounds he stood back up to keep watch while the medi-gel worked in repairing the damage.

_Half an hour later… _

Half an hour had gone by and Shepard and Thane had, had to relocate at least two times, the first time a group of four including Gale had walked past their hiding place. Lucky for Shepard Thane's wounds had held enough that he could walk. After the second time they had made it to a place called _'super-duper mart' _a pre-apocalyptic food market from the look of it, once they entered they were met with an odd sense of foreboding. Like something was telling them to turn away, unfortunately they needed a place to hide from the Brother Hood.

They had just gotten in the door when they heard the heavy foot falls of power armor, outside he could faintly hear them talking.

"Damn they got away! Lake is sure to be bitching us out for the rest of the day!"

"Maybe not… do you think they went in?"

"Where? In there? God if they did than those poor bastards"

"We should report back"

Shepard heard the men begin to move away from the door; slowly he let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Turning to Thane, who looked just as puzzled as he was, sensing that they were wondering the same thing Shepard voiced the question.

"What do you think they were talking about?" Thane just shook his head confused as he was. 

"Well you let's see what we can find in here, maybe something that we can eat" Shepard walked deeper in to the market. Unaware of the danger that was lurking inside.

**A.N: you know for some reason I was crying while writing the market scene. Also if you could catch them there where a few Metro 2033 references. Hope you liked this chapter! And as always please leave a review! **

**See you when I see you! Hug, hug kiss, kiss. **


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N: WARNING. THIS CHAPTER IS SHORT, ALSO RECAMANDETION FOR EMOTIONLE DEPTH LISTION WITH ****Imogen Heaps - Hide and Seek. AND AS ALWAYS LEAVE A REVIEW!**

Chapter nine: Ghosts.

Shepard and Thane waited on the inside of the door for a while longer to see if anymore B.o.S agents would show up, they had heard the thumping footsteps of their power armor but none ever entered the abandoned market. After at least one hour of waiting since they had last heard the troopers go by he and Thane stood from their hiding places on the inside of the double doors.

Taking a better look at his surroundings he noticed that the only place in the building that was, at least slightly illuminated was the entrance that they were standing in. Shepard had to squint in to the darkness just to see what was inside, he could only make out a few odd shapes here and there but nothing solid.

"Should we continue onwards?" Thane questioned, Shepard was cautious in deciding on what to do. He had heard what those two troopers had said; they had made it sound like the place was haunted. Coming to a decision he said.

"I guess we do" Shepard walked in to the darkness, Unholstering his rifle he switched it flash light on, soda bottles and tin cans littered the floor, and as they walked deeper in to the blackness the air around them began to get colder and colder to the point where Shepard had to turn his armors heating system on just to keep from catching frostbite.

'_This is strange'_ he thought to himself as he watched his breath come out in little puffs of hot air.

'_Even if this place had a cooling system, you still should still be able to fell at least some semblance of heat from the outside.'_ Deeper they descended in to the store, every step they took Shepard's sense of foreboding grew the fact that the place they were in was freezing left him unsettled. That and all the shadows made for a perfect hiding place for enemies.

Shepard's flash light came over a small entryway to his left, cautiously he approached it. Inside the hall was more tin cans, on the walls was some sort of graffiti depicting some sort of crazed smiling face and a another one showed a mushroom cloud. As he continued to look around a tin can came tinkering up from behind him the sudden movement made him jump, taking deep breaths to get his heart rate under control he turned around to see if Thane had done that by accident.

Only Thane wasn't there.

Shepard felt the cold pierce his calm, under control mental barrier the icy feeling began to run through his blood. Thane wasn't one to abandon people or his friends; walking back the way he came Shepard found that the small light in the front had gone out.

"Thane!" he called out hopping that the Drell would respond.

Nothing came back.

Shepard called out a few more times before giving up and deciding on searching the place, even if it was in pitch black. Walking to his left Shepard found a dirt covered counter, shining his flashlight he saw the remains of a person strung up to the wall, the man's head was missing. Looking to his left he saw another corpse hanging from the ceiling, this one was female and like the man her head was also missing.

Trying not to heave from the sight he turned to his left and was met with a disturbing sight, In front of him where two silhouettes. One was tall and slender while the other was small; they seemed to be holding hands the little one, bouncing all over the place as they walked towards the counter. He could hear a sound; something like an echo it was faint but there, all of a sudden a sharp pain shot through his brain like someone was sticking a needle through his skull.

In an instant the pain cleared up, just as it was quick to come it was gone. A few things were different when he looked up, could hear the two shadows talking and the shopping store held a ghostly image.

"Mommy! Mommy! Can I please get some sugar bombs!" the little boy asked excitedly.

"Of course, but you're not having them until after dinner." The mother answered, her voice just as Ghostly as the child's.

Shepard smiled at the sight; he knew that these people didn't exist. In fact they reminded him of the shadowy figures form his nightmares.

An image of the feral, ghoulified Ashley Willems flashed into his head causing him to clutch his head the pain of the memory was still raw even after being dead for two years, memories of his past triumphs and failures still haunted him to this day. Ash and Kayden's Deaths, Presley's everyone that had died on that bartiren (**A.N: hope I spelled that right :**) colony.

Shaking off what little mental trauma he could he looked back to the two silhouettes to see five more holding guns pointed at the mother and child, shouting out what sounded like chicanes (**A.N: hope I spelled that right too :?**) one of the men shouted something and the rest opened fired on the two. Screams and gun fire filled the area for a brief moment, than the defining silence sank in.

Shepard had seen many horrors and atrocities in his time as a solder. But that one image of seeing two innocent people's bodies lying there, unmoving, was something that was burned into his memory with all the other metal scars that he had.

Just when he was about to turn away Shepard caught movement from the smaller body, the child was still alive. Weakly he crawled away from his mother's corpse the crying that he heard tore Shepard's heart out. One of the chicness solders walked over to the dyeing boy, the man crouched down to get a better look at the child, after he had finished his "observation" he pulled out a pistol and put a bullet in the kids brain.

Shepard couldn't believe what he had just seen, mankind at its worst right there. Men and woman killing innocents because someone ordered them to, he had seen dead civilians before but never first hand had he seen it like this. It was done so merciless. Clenching his hands in to fists Shepard wiped at the tears he hadn't realized were falling. 

"No matter how much you think your actions are justified, it still doesn't change the fact that you are still taking something dear from someone's life" he said aloud, even though he knew the only person who may have heard him was missing. As the image of the ghosts began to disappear Shepard made a promise to himself.

To never let another incent die for senseless death.

END.

**A.N: Christ I feel like shit, if you think I should re-write this chapter leave a review. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A.N: hey guys, I am so sorry for the long wait. Recently I've had a lot of problems concerning health, family and when it had finally settled, I had gotten locked out of my user. **

**So I am going to end the story, now I know all of you are probably going to be pissed at this but I feel it's been too long for this story recover. **

**But if you want this to keep going I will be posting a pol for it you can vote there. **

**Thaxmax out. **


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